A Mayo based senator has alleged this week in the Seanad that potential students who inquire about courses in the GMIT campus in Castlebar are being steered towards the Galway campus if a similar course is on offer there and that the Mayo campus is being "bullied" by its overseeing campus. Fine Gael senator Paddy Burke raised the issue of the future of the Castlebar campus of the institute with the Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton, in the upper house of the Oireachtas as fears for the future of the facility in Castlebar have intesified recently. Those fears were further increased late last week when the head of the Mayo campus Dr Deirdre Garvey stepped down from her position.